Buddy’s used to be my favorite pizza as a kid. Their square crust pizza was a must at birthdays and had this amazing slightly-sweet tomato sauce and chewy crust with little pieces of almost-burnt cheese on it. Ah to wax nostalgic on my gluten-filled and fancy-free days.

So when I heard that Buddy’s started making gluten free pizza, I was stoked. I figured that they would try to make it as close to their regular version as possible, and couldn’t wait to try it. Plus I haven’t heard of anywhere else making gf pizza in Michigan.

So my friend and I arrive and order our pizza with green peppers and mushrooms, and sit down to wait the 15 minutes they say it will take to make special. Fifteen minutes later, they come to tell us that the crust stuck to the aluminum foil that it was baking on (?) …and they used the wrong kind of cheese (?)…so they are going to have to remake it. Obviously gluten free pizzas aren’t requested very often. They were very sweet and offered us free drinks and a Greek salad while we waited for Pizza #2, so we sat back and waited some more.

Eventually the much-anticipated Pizza #2 made its debut.

This picture actually looks better than it looked in real life, if that’s possible. It was pretty small, with thin crust, and had the look of those little pizzas they used to put in school lunches.

And it kind of tasted that way too…

It’s not that it was totally inedible. But not something that I would order again, and definitely not as good as I can make at home.

Now I will defend Detroit until the day I die for a thousand reasons, but gluten free pizza is not yet one of them.

7 responses to “Buddy’s Pizza – Detroit”

I’ve had the Buddy’s gluten free pizza and I’d agree it’s just okay. I live in the Detroit area and have found a few other places that have GF pizza – Uno Chicago Grill, Passport Pizza and Cottage Inn Pizza – all chain restaurants. Honestly I have yet to find a good GF pizza in my area. I had to LOL at your comment about the school lunch pizzas – I think the school lunch pizzas were better.

The Buddy’s on Woodward in Royal Oak does do a great job, one of my favorites and reliable, especially given the fact that it’s not a sit-down place, but a tiny carry out only. I have gotten sick from cross contamination at many upscale places, but never here! Efros Brothers in Troy is good and they make the most awesome salad trays I’ve ever seen, plus they carry Rumi’s Passion from Plymouth who make the absolute best baked goods! BUT the best pizza, hands down, is Amici’s on 12 Mile in downtown Berkley – you will swear it’s not GF! Gotta try it – even my non-GF friends and family will gladly eat it.